The graphic arts industry is concerned with the matter of handling printed signatures or sheets to the extent of receiving the signatures from a printing press or folder and feeding them to a feeder mechanism which collates the signatures into a magazine or book form of a collection of several different printed signatures. In this regard, the stack of signatures produced by the printing press or stacker is commonly secured or bundled and is transported to a feeder mechanism which does the collating. In this activity, it is important that the secured or bundled stack of signatures be conveniently disposed on apparatus for dispensing the stack to the feeder mechanism, and the dispensing must be such that the signatures are presented to the feeding mechanism in desired quantities and in a continuous manner so that the entire equipment and apparatus can be continuously utilized in a productive manner. In this regard, various forms of mechanisms have been created and utilized for depositing signatures in a feeder mechanism, and of course such mechanisms have improved upon the manual labor manner of picking up a portion of a stack of signatures and placing that portion on the feeder mechanism.
For instance, my U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,825,134 and 3,853,243 both show inventions in the sheet stack handling art, such that a stack of signatures can be positioned in a dispensing conveyor which in turn takes the signatures individually to the feeder mechanism, all as desired. Further, my U.S. Pat. No. 3,635,463 also shows apparatus for feeding sheets off a stack of sheets and into a feeder type of mechanism where the sheets are presented one by one. In the last-mentioned patent, there is a stack carrier which receives the full stack of sheets and which advances the stack upwardly on an inclined plane to where the uppermost sheet is moved off the stack and the sheets are actually positioned in a second but smaller stack and in a hopper adjacent a feeder mechanism which takes the sheets from the smaller stack. In this arrangement, the patent show that the apparatus utilizes conveyor mechanism for moving the stack and it utilizes belts for taking the sheets off the stack and placing them into the feeder mechanism hopper.
The present invention is concerned with this type of signature feeder mechanism, and it provides the feeder mechanism wherein the original stacks can be continuously and uniformly presented to the dispensing location where the sheets are then engaged by a conveyor which positions the sheets in imbricated stream and takes them to a deposit location where the sheets are again placed in a stack adjacent a feeder mechanism. In this present arrangement, provision is made for accurately feeding the sheets from the stack and to the dispensing location, and in the actual embodiment shown herein, the pick-up or feeder conveyor is arranged to be adjustable so that the degree of imbrication or spacing between the sheets is controlled, and the pick-up conveyor is reliable in that it is in full control of the sheets at the forward face of the stack and thus can pick them up and securely and reliably feed them into the stream and to the dispensing station.
Still further, the present invention provides apparatus for controlling the rate of feeding the sheets from the stack to the dispensing location, and the control is automatic through electric sensors and electric motors which drive both the stack carrier and the pick-up conveyor.
Still further, the present invention provides apparatus for jogging the small stack in the dispensor location adjacent the feeder mechanism so that the signatures are in the best position for pick-up by the feeder mechanism.
In summary, the present invention provides a reliable and accurate apparatus for receiving a stack of sheets and automatically feeding the sheets or signatures from the stack and to a dispensing location from whence the sheets can be fed to the feeder mechanism.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawings.